KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Red Sox began scouting Rafael Devers about 15 months ago, and they got plenty of looks at him before committing a large bonus that MassLive.com has confirmed was worth $1.5 million.

A 16-year-old third baseman from the Dominican Republic, Devers should be able to stay at the position, Red Sox international scouting director Eddie Romero said in a phone interview. The international signing period started July 2, but the deal wasn't made official by the club until Friday.

That wait, Romero said, was because of an unspecified administrative issue, but nothing related to Devers' age. All four players the Red Sox announced as officially signed Friday are 16: two from the Dominican Republic and two from Venezuela.

"Yeah, it was an administrative detail," Romero said. "It had nothing to do with his age. I know people may have worried about that. It was nothing tied to him, it was an administrative detail that needed to be taken care of."

Joining Devers were two left-handed pitchers from Venezuela, Enmanuel DeJesus and Jhonathan Diaz, as well as a Dominican outfielder, Yoan Aybar.

Devers alone accounts for half of the money in Boston's allotted bonus pool for the 2013-14 international signing period, which ends June 15, 2014. The Sox started out with $3,179,900 to spend in the international market, per Baseball America.

According to MLB.com, DeJesus agreed to a $787,500 deal, while Diaz signed for $600,000 and Aybar for $450,000.

Those figures would put the Sox at $3,337,500 in bonuses — above the $3,179,900 threshold.

Teams that go over their allotment by anywhere up to 5 percent are taxed 75 percent on the overages. Five percent of Boston's allotment is $158,995, and Boston seems to have spent $157,600 over its allotment.

That means Boston appears to be facing a tax of $118,200.

At a 5-10 percent overage, teams pay 75 percent on overage, plus, they can't give more than one player in the next succeeding signing period a bonus above $500,000. The penalties get stiffer from there.

Here's the catch: some smaller signings don't count against the pool. From the collective bargaining agreement: "For the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 signing periods only, a Club’s six highest signing bonuses that are equal to or less than $50,000 will not count toward its Signing Bonus Pool. In addition, bonuses provided to players of $7,500 or less will not count toward a Club’s Signing Bonus Pool."

The Red Sox may have spent almost all their money, but that doesn't mean they can't make more pick-ups.

'There will be more signings, absolutely," said Romero, who did not address how much money the team has left to spend. "The evaluation process for the 2014 players is already well underway. That's the fun part about this market, because there really is no lag time."

"We're excited," Romero said. "We feel that he's a pretty advanced hitter. The bat is what drew us most right away. Our area scout Manny Nanita did a great job of evaluating him early and bringing him in so that we could get multiple looks at him. We just felt comfortable that this was one of the better hitters available in this year's international market. We're projecting him to be a third baseman with a great feel to hit. He's a very hard worker, he's a tremendous kid. He told us during the process that he wanted to be a Red Sox, that he wanted to sign with the Red Sox. So at the end of the day we're really thrilled to have him and add this kind of potential to the system."

The plan is to keep Devers at third base. Baseball America suggested in its international scouting reports that Devers could eventually move to first base.

"He's going to go out as a third baseman," Romero said. "He's really going to have to play his way out of there. He's got the arm strength to play there, he's go the hands to play there. We see him as a third baseman. If for some reason he grows out of it or something, he could definitely play first base or left field. But he's definitely a third baseman for now."

For now, Devers will stay in the Dominican Summer League, which runs for a couple more weeks. He'll remain at the team's Dominican complex for some time.

"Then from there, we'll determine when our instructional league rosters are completed where he's going to go," Romero said. "He'll spend a significant amount of time at our Dominican facility. He'll kind of take it from there. He'll play his way until wherever next year. That's kind of too far to tell. For now, he'll spend a significant amount of time and get a lot of work in at the Dominican complex."

The Red Sox started scouting Devers more than a year ago, and his agent Rudy Santin put him in games that made it easy for the Red Sox to evaluate him. The Red Sox were known to be hot on Devers for a while.

"We saw Devers probably for the first time about 15 months ago was the first time that we saw him," Romero said. "Just saw him working while seeing other players, we saw him working out. You have to follow certain rules in order to be able to invite him to your academy. So when the time was right, we got him in immediately and started evaluating him there. His agent, Rudy Santin, did a really good job of giving us several opportunities to evaluate him. We got a lot of workouts, we got a lot of games. I credit his work with him for putting him out there and exposing him in those games. That makes our decisions, the scouts' — it's easier when we see him in that kind of environment."

"He's a strong, well put together left-handed starter," Romero said. "He first threw with us last September, October, with our area scout, Angel Escobar. We got ample opportunities to see him in games. He really impressed us, really good poise on the mound. He's got a feel to pitch and throws three pitches with a durable body."

The repertoire: fastball, curveball change, with the fastball usually 86-88 mph.

"He's 6-foot-3," Romero said. "The mechanics were advanced. He kind of stood out. Very polished guy with a lot of upside."

Diaz is another Escobar signing, and Romero highlighted the work Escobar put in to find Diaz and DeJesus. Baseball America pegged the Red Sox as a suitor for Diaz.

"He deserves recognition this year because he did a hell of a job of getting us these guys," Romero said. "Early and multiple looks on these guys to where we felt convicted in going after them. Those are two guys with starter traits that we hope can grow a lot in the system."

Diaz's velocity isn't quite DeJesus', and he doesn't have the same frame at three inches shorter. But his velocity has already picked up.

"Right around the same velocity-wise, maybe a tick less (than DeJesus)," Romero said. "Since he signed he's been at our complex, his velocity has already picked up a little bit. He too kind of showed us there pitches: fastball, curveball, change. Very athletic. He's not as big as DeJesus, he's about 6-foot now. Ultra competitive guy."

"A lot of high upside," Romero said. "He's got that long-term projectable frame, just needs time for him to develop both physically and fundamentally. He's the guy that's just starting to scratch the surface. We think there's a lot of potential. He's a center fielder, got a strong arm, left-handed bat. We really like the swing. He performed for us very well in several games. He's a guy that we think has a good amount of upside and has a good work ethic to go along with it. It's a lot of projection with him, but he's definitely got a lot of natural, pure tools."